Monday, July 27, 2015

When
Lola Franklin decided to study abroad she never anticipated embarking
on a whirlwind weekend romance with a hot guy before classes started.

And she certainly never counted on the hot guy being her new professor. Or a Prince. Or the biggest asshole she had ever met.

Xavier
Van Romerius is the playboy Prince of Europe and he loves his life. He
doesn’t do relationships, and never wants to get married. But when he
see’s Lola Franklin flirting with his little brother Casper, he realizes
that maybe he needs to rethink his ideas about love before the wrong
Prince gets the girl.

MY TAKE:

Told in alternating first person points of view between the main characters, Finding my Prince Charming is both disappointing and maddening on many levels.

This is a New Adult contemporary romance that tries to be Lolita mashed with 50 Shades, with a student/teacher relationship that borders on icky. The characters teeter on the edge of likeable, while the scenarios sit precariously close to the edge of unbelievable.

Lola is an American college student studying art history in London. She is the quintessential innocent abroad, and catches the wandering eye of a foreign prince who also just happens to be her professor, and who seems obsessed with Nabokov. It all goes downhill from there.

I kept wanting to like one or both of them but they kept doing and saying the most ridiculous things, and putting themselves in stupid and sometimes dangerous situations. I once was that American college student studying abroad, and admit I made one or two bad decisions along the way, but you don't keep repeating the same mistakes. The author gives Lola so little backbone it's utterly disappointing, and the girl doesn't learn anything except how to satiate the prince's twisted sexual fantasies.

The cover claims that Cooper is a New York Times best seller, but maybe her sales are in a different genre, or maybe there is a section of the NA audience who like their heroines submissive. Not my cup of tea, and won't be reading more from this author.

There are tons of great New Adult romances out there - this just isn't one of them. Feel free to leave your suggestions in my comment section, because I need to wipe the taste of this book out of my mind!

Friday, July 24, 2015

My latest contemporary romance officially launches into the world today! I'm very excited about this book and hope readers love it as much as I do! Here's the blurb:

Climate scientist Chase Anderson races from one project to the next,
unwilling to slow down in his quest to save the world’s oceans. He has no time
for family or relationships until he crashes into an impetuous blonde with a
quirky sense of humor. One sizzling kiss makes him seriously reevaluate his
priorities. And his sanity.

Emma Maguire left her
small Cape Cod hometown years ago, seeking the fast pace and anonymity of New
York City. She’s not sure what she’s searching for, but when a family crisis
brings her home to Provincetown she’s caught in a crazy tangle of half-truths
and mistaken identity… and falls for the handsome stranger who broke her cell
phone.

Will untangling the web
of lies drive them crazy, or lead to something even crazier – like love?

And here's the official excerpt, the scene at Bubeleh's Cafe (based on one of my fave restaurants in Provincetown) where Chase first realizes he's a goner for this beautiful blonde... it's a sidewalk cafe along Commercial Street, great for people watching. Chase and Emma meet so she can give him back his broken cell phone, and get into a heated argument when she misunderstands what he's doing in P-town. She decides to "start over" and runs back out onto the street to actually start over. Chase thinks she's a little crazy, but then...

A
blinding smile lit her face, and she waved with enthusiasm. His heart skipped a
few beats as his blood all went lower down.

She
beelined to the table, calling his name. “Chase? Chase! It’s so good to see you
again! Thanks so much for inviting me
to lunch!”

He
found himself rising to greet her for the second time inside an hour. Instead
of sitting, she came to where he stood and wrapped her arms around his neck.
She planted an exaggerated kiss on his cheek, like the one he’d envied Tony for
the prior day, those soft red lips wet on his skin. His arms slipped around her
waist and his stomach clenched hard, inappropriate thoughts racing through his
head at breakneck speed, leaving him dazed. Staring down, he saw similar
confusion mirrored in Emma’s eyes, as if she felt it too, that electric current
running fast and furious between them at every point where their bodies
connected. And she wasn’t letting go.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Today I'm featuring author Jenn Nixon and her new novel, LUCKY'S PROMISE, the third book in her series about reluctant assassin Lucky Fascino. She's celebrating the book's release this week, and bringing some of her characters out on tour with her. Let me turn the blog over to Lucky and Kenji...

* * * *

LUCKY FASCINO: My name is Lucky, or if you ask my boyfriend, Felicia. I
kill people for a living. You may think I’m some cool, badass assassin who’s
out there in the world, righting the wrongs, taking down the creeps and making
the world a better place, but you’d be wrong. The people I get rid of deserved it,
no lie, but unless you’re an actual sociopath—which I’m not—taking another life
is never easy no matter how ugly the person may be.

I have only one reason for getting into this business, to
find the man responsible for killing my mother and forcing my father into
exile. My adoptive parents meant the world to me. It’s still hard for me to
talk about them. Luciano, my dad, was my lifeline. Without him, I don’t know
that I’d have survived this world. I learned that someone tried to kill him,
killing my mother, Molly, instead, Luciano made it his mission to find the man
and make him pay. Only problem? He died before he found him.

I took up his cause and promised to finish what he started.
I spent the last several years looking, searching, and hunting the man who
destroyed my family.

We know who he is and we’re getting closer to finding him. I
only hope Kenji, Uncle Phen and my cousin Bet get off my back and give me the
space I need to finish this once and for all. They don’t know the toll it’s
taken. They can’t see the scars on the inside. Maybe, when it’s over, we can
all do a little healing and be a real family again.

Lucky’s Playlist:

Evil Angel – Breaking Benjamin

All the Same – Sick Puppies

Face Down – The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Pain – Three Days Grace

No One – Cold

Almost Easy – Avenge Sevenfold

So Cold – Breaking Benjamin

KENJI ZINN: The moment Felicia entered my life, I knew it would never be
the same. Being a network contractor is a lonely existence, something we both
shared. Now, we have each other. Each day we grow closer and I think I am
finally breaking through to her, proving that I am an ally and on her side. She
does not make it easy. The secrets she keeps close to her heart seem to have
the most hold over her, but she never shares that pain with me.

Although she hides it well from her uncle and cousin, I know
how much she struggles with this lifestyle. I see it in her eyes before she
leaves for a job and feel it radiate off her like toxic fumes when she returns.
The work is destroying her and I refused to let it happen.

Quimby is in within our reach. I will do whatever I must to
protect those I love. That is my promise.

Kenji’s Playlist:

Superstition – Stevie Wonder

Dust in the Wind – Kansas

Magic Man – Heart

Got My Mind Set on You – George Harrison

No One – Alicia Keys

About the Book:

After years of searching for her mother’s killer, Felicia
“Lucky” Fascino is finally on the right track. With the help of her family, and
on-again off-again boyfriend, Kenji Zinn, Lucky is getting closer to fulfilling
the unspoken promise she made to her adoptive father.

As the group continues to dig deep into the assassin’s
network, and search for the elusive Quimby, ties to the past come back full
circle, endangering everyone Lucky loves and cares for. It’s only a matter of
time before their secret is uncovered.

Available now!

Join me to talk about writing!

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Paranormal Suspense with a splash of Romance

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cape cod romance at its Quirkiest

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Son of a Mermaid, Book One

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Son of a Mermaid, Book Two

Best Selling Cape Cod Romance

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Welcome!

I'm an author, editor, magazine columnist, wife, and mother to three kids and two big dogs... not necessarily in that same order each day. I try to write every day and read a book a week, but life often gets in the way.

I write romance and adventure for young adults and the young at heart, and living next to the Atlantic Ocean influences everything I write...